Hot Dogs

I love Hot Dogs. Who doesn’t? I think the best are Nathan’s, but that is just my opinion.

I’m old enough to recall wieners with skins on them. Boars Head Meats still sell this kind. Most companies have gone to producing skinless wieners that are cooked at the factory in plastic tubes that are removed once the cooking process is done. This saves mothers from having to peel off the skin once the kiddo is old enough to discover the liner is made from pork intestine.

Those old style hot dogs were very suspicious. Only the Good Lord knows what sort of meat was put into the mix. The meat was dyed to make it look pink. They still dye hot dogs. Some of the cheaper brands of wieners consist of various mystery meats and fillers.
What the heck are fillers? It turns out this is bread crumbs, oatmeal or cereal, flour, egg whites and spices. Of course there is sodium nitrate and preservatives added to the mix.
The sodium nitrate is there to help the weenies maintain their pleasant pink color and it helps to prevent botulism. Although botulism is all the rage and rich ladies are paying big bucks to have it injected into almost every body part. Maybe they should just eat hot dogs. Pass the mustard please.